Sand Demons and Sappy Romances
by SeeingToad
Summary: During the Chuunin Exams, Sakura finds someone's syrupy-sweet shoujo manga. Could it belong to her rival?


Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto._

A/N: This is just a short, silly story I wrote. There are no pairings - its just a very short and silly fic. XD

**Sand Demons and Sappy Romances**

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Team 7 had been trekking through the Forest of Death for three days, when suddenly Sakura (who had wandered off somewhere to use the bathroom in private) found something that looked suspiciously like the type of manga her rival would read. It was called _Sweet Kiss of Paradise _and the cover consisted of a winged sparkly-eyed teenage girl who was giggling in the arms of an effeminate wavy-haired bishounen with pointy features.

Sakura found herself flipping through the pages. Ugh. The first scenes were so full of cutesy clichés, and the romance outrageously quick and sugary, that she dropped it as if burned. Normally, she enjoyed reading shoujo manga. What girl _didn't_ like them? But this one was so freakishly cheery and badly written, she had half a mind to tear it in pieces and give it the proper funeral of a fireball jutsu (with Sasuke's help on the latter, of course).

But, knowing that her rival would be wanting this wretched excuse of a manga, Sakura made room for it inside her shuriken pouch. She decided Ino was extremely careless to bring such a thing to the Chuunin exams; this proved that her rival wasn't very smart. Ino was taking this exam very, very lightly. Sakura imagined the blonde thought _she _was so above her that Ino didn't have to try. Hence, the wretched burn-worthy manga.

When she returned to her teammates, Naruto greeted her with a, "Hey, where were you, Sakura-chan?"

Sasuke simply gave her an indifferent stare. "Hn."

"I had to use the bathroom, where else?" she said, rolling her green eyes.

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_Meanwhile…_

"Kankuro," Gaara's voice rasped out. The twelve-year-old Genin was glaring up at Kankuro, who shivered. The air, even though it was warm and humid in Konoha, was suddenly much cooler. Even though they were in the tower in the center of the Forest of Death, a bead of cold sweat trickled down the older boy's face. "Where is it?"

"Where's what?" Temari broke in, knowing that she was probably making things worse with her intrusion. She just hated didn't want to be partially responsible for Kankuro's death, or her own, for that matter. "What do you mean?" she added, proud that her voice wasn't wavering very much.

"I was asking Kankuro. If you interfere, I will kill you," Gaara threatened, his cold, hate-filled pale eyes flitting over to her. Sand dripped out of his sand gourd; he was serious. Temari swallowed and took a small step back.

"What are you looking for?" Kankuro asked. He imagined it was probably a special scroll with techniques only someone like Gaara could do, or maybe he had lost the bones of an extra strong assassin his demon possessed brother was keeping as a creepy souvenir.

"My manga," Gaara answered, flatly.

Temari could only imagine which ones he would be into. The graphic violence would be so strong, Gaara was probably the only person who was reading it – whatever it was. Or, she _assumed_ that was the kind he was reading, which was the gory sort with lots and lots of blood.

"Uh, what type of manga?" Kankuro asked, after he had worked moisture into his mouth. Man, sometimes he wished he could beat up his little brother sometimes, instead of feeling this terror over this short little midget.

Gaara paused. The air stilled, and the Forest of Death grew ominously silent. Kankuro shivered for the second time, waiting with bated breath for his scary sibling's response.

"A shoujo manga: _Sweet Kiss of Paradise._"

And Temari and Kankuro had thought nothing else could sound so sinister.

-----

After risking life and limb, after being nearly _killed _by Sound nin and then, by multitudes of Rain ninja who just _wouldn't die_, Sakura had made it to the tower with her teammates. Elated at the fact she would no longer be trekking through the woods with her teammates' lives at stake, she released a relieved sigh and leaned backwards against a wall. Now she had to find Yamanaka Ino and return the manga to her before it burnt a hole in Sakura's shuriken pouch, or something else along those lines.

When she entered the main arena of the tower, she saw all the Genin and Jounin in rows. Among the Genin she saw Ino. Good! Now she could finally be rid of garbage. She walked over to the blonde, trying not to be too conspicuous.

"Hey, Ino-pig! Found your manga!" Sakura whispered, whipping it out from her shuriken pouch. Ino snorted, glaring down at the image cover and title.

"You're underestimating me, Billboard-Brow if you think I'd carry something like _that _with me into the exams!" the blonde said with a haughty toss of her head. "To me, it's something _you _would read! You probably fantasize about Sasuke-kun while reading it!"

Sakura was about to retort her when the Third Hokage began a speech. It turned out too many had made it through the second exam and now they were being weeded out through a preliminary exam. The Genin groups were sent to a balcony where they would watch ensuing battles and wait their turn.

Sakura had, by then, shoved the tacky manga back into her shuriken pouch. She stared out at the different Genin teams. Hinata seemed like the sort who _may_be into glitzy shoujo with syrupy romances, but the pink haired kunoichi doubted it. She found herself glancing at the blonde Sand kunoichi with four ponytails. Her?

Sakura took out the manga again, and suddenly it was snatched from her hands.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, expecting to see either a familiar female Genin or Kin, but found herself staring into the frigid black-ringed eyes of Sabaku no Gaara. He was frighteningly close, having conjured himself in a whirl of sand. Somehow, even though she had never seen him fight, Sakura feared for her life.

"This is _my_ manga," he stated possessively, slipping _Sweet Kiss of Paradise_ into his shuriken pouch. "If I find any pages missing from it, I will kill you in very slow and painful ways." He performed a teleportation jutsu and vanished, reappearing between his teammates.

Sakura had witnessed the horrifying sight of the serpentine Orochimaru bite Sasuke-kun on the neck, had seen clones of enemy Genin split in two like hydras, and had see other very strange things during the Chuunin exams.

This took the cake.


End file.
